While she could be funny sometimes the focus the editors put on her did feel a bit artificial. Wouldn't surprise me if even at the time it made Ralph feel he was a bit part player in the story the producers wanted to make.

Wisecracking, occasional Mean Girl Vanessa and her affable, but occasionally pugnacious boyfriend Ralph were one of the more polarizing teams on the recently completed season of "The Amazing Race."

For some fans, Vanessa's loopy and occasionally biting wit, plus Ralph's solid physicality made them an easy team to root for.

But for other viewers, it felt like Vanessa was picking on "Big Brother" veterans Brendon & Rachel, which would only be a negative if you happen to believe that Brendon & Rachel didn't deserve to be picked on.

Ralph & Vanessa had a steady, but unremarkable "Amazing Race" run, always competitive, but never rising above third on any Leg.

At least they had a memorable departure as Vanessa, nursing an injured ankle from an earlier fall, was forced to complete in a Japanese game show Roadblock that asked contestants to sprint against the tide of a treadmill, periodically leaping to grab rubber chickens. It was an exhausting challenge under any circumstances, but with a sprained ankle, it seemed to be untenable. While Ralph urged Vanessa to quit and take the penalty, Vanessa battled through, refusing to quit. They still finished in fourth and were eliminated, but at least they left with their heads up.

In their exit interview on Monday, Vanessa & Ralph discussed that last Roadblock, their battles with each other and with Rachel & Brendon and why fighting may have been the secret to Dave & Rachel's winning success.

HitFix: Obviously nobody wants to go home on "The Amazing Race," but it seemed to me like your elimination was portrayed in a very positive light, especially in terms of Vanessa's effort. Do you take any solace in that?

Vanessa Macias: [Laughing. Unconvinced.] Ummm... Sure? I guess so? If I would have wussed out, I would have been horribly disappointed in myself and as much as I feel like I did let Ralph down, regardless of how I finished, I would have felt worse about it had I just quit. So yeah, I guess. It's better than quitting.

Ralph Kelley: [Also unconvinced.] Losing is always hard for me. I'm very competitive. But considering the circumstances and how it went down, we were so close to achieving the goal which we set out for, which was to be on every leg of the Race, obviously racing for that last mat. So... I guess?

Vanessa: Yeah, I guess that's a "No..." from both of us.

HitFix: Vanessa, when you knew this was a Roadblock that you were going to have to do, what went through your mind when you saw what the actual Roadblock was, given your physical condition?

Vanessa: We were joking about it in the car. We knew I had to do the Roadblock and I was like, "It's going to 'Run this Marathon' or 'Jumping Jacks for Half-an-Hour.'" I knew, in my heart-of-hearts, I knew it was going to be something physical. I was kinda ready for it, but I was not ready for THAT. Who's ready for rubber chickens and a freakin' treadmill in Japan? Like who ever says that sentence?

HitFix: And how quickly did you realize how hard it was going to be for her, Ralph?

Ralph: Actually, she was downstairs getting dressed to come up and as soon as I walked in, I realized what the Roadblock was and my heart basically stopped, because I knew that this was not going to be a good situation.

HitFix: And relatively early on, we saw you start urging her to quit. What was the point at which you realized that that might be a better option?

Ralph: Honestly? Before she'd even set foot on the treadmill. I don't know how many times they showed it last night and I don't know how many times she actually tried and fell. I know we were there for a long time and you could just see in her face that it was killing her. I already knew it was gonna hurt her. She seriously injured her ankle and then we had to fly and she was on it for, I dunno, probably 24-ish hours before that challenge? It was one of those things where there was no true point where i was like "Quit," but I was just giving her options and letting her know that I supported her if she couldn't do it.

Vanessa: It wasn't early when he suggested it. It was just cut that way. But I would say I did it around 30 times. I'm sure it was not only just painful to watch, but nerve-wracking on top of that, because it's still a race and I'm going. running, falling down screaming, getting up, running, falling down screaming. But we were still in a hurry, so if you're just standing there watching this happen and watching a million dollars slip out of your hands because of a misstep, then yeah, I'm sure it's pretty nerve-wracking.

HitFix: Vanessa, when you went down in the episode before, you mentioned that you have a pretty high threshold for pain. How bad was this?

Vanessa: This was really bad. I've broken that ankle. I have a screw in it. I've torn that Achilles tendon. I've broken all of the bones on top of that foot. I've broken a lot of bones in my life and still played or danced or done whatever I was doing. But this was just continuous, non-stop and the treadmill, most of the problem is that you're making your ankle roll over more easily. It was excruciating. It was absolutely excruciating.

HitFix: Under those circumstances, did you actually come close to quitting at any point?

Vanessa: Yeah, we discussed it briefly. Very briefly we discussed it and assessed the situation. You know: What would a penalty be? What would that entail? Is there a possibility of anybody getting that lost where it would behoove us to do it? But no, you have that flash of desperation and then you have the flash of, "You know what? I'm here. We came here for a reason. We came here for a million dollars" and that's a huge carrot to dangle in front of your face and going through everything that we went through, thinking about the watermelons, for God's sake, and all the adversity that we fought to get to that point and everything that Ralph had to do and he pulled through. I just didn't want to let him down.

HitFix: What was it like watching the Battle in Bavaria on TV? And what did you guys learn from that fight?

Vanessa: I have learned a lot from watching a lot of the different arguments on air, the fights and behaviors. Let's just say that.

HitFix: No more details there?

Vanessa: I've realized that I have the capability to be mean. I have that in me. I can be mean. Everybody who knows me is saying, "Wow, you're really nice to me" or "You're nice to the people around you." I get really mama-lion around people that are close to me. If you say something mean to me, then typically I let it go, but if you say something mean to somebody close to me, then I'm gonna tear your head off. And the means by which I tear people's heads off? Probably it's not OK. Some of the things that I said, I should have never said and I'm taking that and learning from it.

HitFix: How about you, Ralph? What did you learn from watching things unfold?

Ralph: I'm just glad I didn't pick up the coat like she told me to, because I would have been blasted by my boys back here in Texas forever and ever. No, I'm just kidding. Honestly? There was so much more to that. It's the way it was cut. We know what happened. I wasn't nice. She wasn't nice. And it was just one of those times where all the pressure from all the racing and being basically stuck together for however many days we were, up to that point, it just all came out in that one instance, that journey up the hill. The funny thing is is that we've argued before and we know how to push each other's buttons and we were pushing all kinds of buttons going up that hill. It was just an argument that got aired, honestly. There was so much more to it that didn't. I really don't know what else to say about it. I don't know if I necessarily learned anything from it.

HitFix: You talked a little bit around this, Vanessa, but was there a first incident or an inciting incident that happened with the "Big Brother" team that got you guys off on the wrong foot? Suddenly, it just seemed like you guys were at war and it didn't really make sense on TV. Did it make sense there?

Vanessa: Yeah, it made sense. There was an incident that didn't air, about which I was told I couldn't disclose. It was just something...

Ralph: They just challenged our personal beliefs and it just really struck a nerve and then, all of a sudden, you see the escalation after that.

Vanessa: When everybody's sitting down at the airport and getting to know one another, we're talking about what we do in our personal lives. Of course, I come from a political background and they challenged my political beliefs in a really weird, vivid, strange, odd, offensive way. And I'm a hard person to offend, so if you offend me, then it's gotta be out there. And it rubbed me the wrong way. So, from that point on...

HitFix: How good were Dave and Rachel? And what made them so good, do you think?

Ralph: Physically, they worked well as a team. They were physically fit enough to get through the challenges, except for Dave's head and the whole bottle deal, which I would have loved to have watched. A lot of it, honestly, it's luck. It would have totally changed everything, they went for that Fast-Forward and they barely beat the New York Boys. Props to her, she pulled through with Dave and they worked well together. But really, the Race, there's so much luck involved. A wrong turn from a cab-driver? A missed clue? Another team making a wrong turn? There are so many factors that are involved. They knocked it out. You can't say that they didn't earn everything that they got.

Vanessa: We're all in the same situation where everybody's facing different variables. And they argued so much more than I knew! Maybe that was just the cut they got, but they argued. We heard it when we were next to them. Maybe, and I think there might be something to this, but when we argued we had our best finish. They're just so hot, they're so mad and so passionate, that they took it out on the field. So I think that may have been it. They're fit. They're smart. They're competitive. And they're MAD. You can't mess with that.

HitFix: And what was it like watching them reach the end and have to turn back around and return to the Roadblock? You guys were there for that... What was that moment of awkwardness like from your point of view?

Ralph: It was heartbreaking. We saw them turn the corner.

Vanessa: They were so happy!

Ralph: I was like, if I was in their shoes, I don't know what I would have done. It's just like, you turn the corner and all the other teams are there clapping and you see Phil and you see him smiling and Dave was jumping up and down... and he tells them that, um, yeah... they forgot to do part of the Roadblock. I felt so bad for them, because I really did not expect for them to pull it out. I didn't know where they had to go, but we knew that part of their challenge was coming across that water, so they had to make their back and get back to whatever challenge they were at, so I really didn't expect for them to come back through first.

Vanessa: That was impressive. You're there and you have to clap and you have to smile, but you don't want to. I was kinda looking away like, "Oh, I can't look them in the eye and do this." You know, Dave & Rachel were of my favorites, but JJ & Art were my favorites and I was really rooting for them to win, so when that happened, I kinda had a little flutter of hope like, "The boys are gonna pull it out! The boys are gonna pull it out!" So I thought for a second that maybe Art & JJ were gonna pull it out.

Vanessa and Ralph just missed out on the final leg of The Amazing Race after Vanessa's sprained ankle prevented them from making it into the top three teams.

Digital Spy spoke with Vanessa and Ralph about that all-important injury, their feud with Brendon and Rachel, their relationship status, and which unusual item Vanessa thinks Amazing Race teams should pack...

Congratulations on getting so far! Was it frustrating just missing out on the final leg?Ralph: "That actually was my goal for us, was to make it to every leg. But due to the circumstances, we obviously got as close as we could. But yeah, it's frustrating - we wanted to be there racing in Hawaii."Vanessa: "Yeah, I think when you're in a situation like that, if you don't wholeheartedly believe that you're going to make the final leg and you don't wholeheartedly believe that you're going to win this thing, then you shouldn't be there to begin with. And it was just one misstep - pardon the pun - that I think came between us and a million dollars."

But at least you did still get to go to Hawaii!Vanessa: "Yeah, we did!"Ralph: "Yeah."Vanessa: "We saw sea turtles!"

It seemed pretty close between you and Brendon and Rachel at the end of the leg - do you know how far behind you were?Ralph: "We've heard everything from 30 minutes to less, but we know that we were fairly close. I couldn't tell you exactly how far behind we were."Vanessa: "It was disappointingly close!"

I guess that's almost worse.Vanessa: "Um, you know, no I wouldn't say it's worse. I mean, a W in the column is a W and an L in the column is an L. Either way you slice it, if we were two seconds behind or 30 minutes behind, it's still behind."

And obviously you didn't get along with Brendon and Rachel - what was it about them that made you clash?Vanessa: "We just had differences of opinions that, you know, things that we discussed here and there and everywhere. It just didn't happen - we just were not congruent personalities!"

Do you have any regrets about the arguments?Vanessa: "Yeah - I mean, in hindsight I don't think I would have made the nose comment! It was mean. You know, when you see first-hand how mean you're capable of being, it makes you kind of wanna curtail that - not make people feel the way I make people feel."

Did anything surprise you, watching the show back?Vanessa: "I don't know - nothing really surprised me."Ralph: "Nothing really surprised me. I mean, I just wanted to hear, I was really interested in hearing the comments from the other guys when they were doing their interviews - seeing what they were saying about us. I did like all the nicknames though."Vanessa: "I loved the nicknames, yeah!"

Vanessa, you pushed through the Japanese gameshow challenge even though your ankle looked so bad. What was going through your mind?Vanessa: "Honestly, I've had broken ankles before, I have a screw in it, I've torn an Achilles tendon, I've broken other bones on the top of that foot - I had this false sense of security that because I have that screw in there, it wasn't going to break. And yeah, it hurts like hell, but a little bit of ligament damage never killed anybody! I just wanted to finish, I just wanted to finish. I didn't want to go out quitting after everything we'd done, after everything that Ralph had done, and to stand there and be in that position where you just completely let somebody down, I wasn't going to do it."

Ralph, you suggested that you should just take the penalty. Did you ever consider that, Vanessa?Vanessa: "We considered it very briefly. We took a break, Ralph checked my ankle, and I went back to it. That's not how we want to go down - we don't want to go down quitting, come on!"

Ralph, you looked quite worried about Vanessa...Ralph: "I mean, being a personal trainer and having been a paramedic for many years, I mean I knew what she was going through. I understood what she was going through. It was just one of those things - I didn't know how much it hurt. There's no way anyone in the world could have made that decision but her, and at that point in time, yes, the race was a concern, but so was her ankle. What do you do? She's the only one that could have finished it, and she did. Unfortunately we were delayed and maybe it cost us, maybe it didn't, who knows. We could play 'what-if's all day long. I was concerned, and for a lot of different reasons. I hate losing! But at the same time her ankle was obviously more important at the time."Vanessa: "Yeah, I didn't think so!"

You did seem proud when Vanessa finished, Ralph.Ralph: "I mean, she was a champ, she [toughed] it out. Until you're put in that position, you don't know how you're going to react and I don't know how many other people would have finished that and not given up."

What was your favorite moment from the Race?Vanessa: "Africa. The safari in Africa was something that I've always, always, always wanted to do and if somebody stayed still long enough for me to tell them I would tell them. I love elephants - I have elephants all over my house and to see one in that situation just living its life, and we're just driving through the Ngorongoro Crater, I think I was about to cry. It was beautiful. It was beautiful and the people were amazing. The scenery was gorgeous. Everything about it made me want to move there for a year."Ralph: "Along with Africa - that was obviously a wonderful place and everything that Vanessa said - but for me it was really important to be in Japan. I mean, I think everyone kind of got the sense with the show last night that when we got to Memorial Park, that was an incredible experience to just stand there and pause and take note of history like that that has taken place in the world. Japan was awesome as well."Vanessa: "There's a series of tattoos on Ralph's arm - he has a geisha, he has a samurai warrior, he has a Torii gate. It's just kind of funny - 'Can we use the Torii gate on his arm and grab the clue from there?' So you can tell Japan was really something that hit him hard. It was cool."

Apart from your ankle problems, Vanessa, what was the hardest part of the Race?Vanessa: "You know, I could have been more physically prepared. Running isn't really my strong suit and you're going with somebody, you're going with Ralph, who's just a physical anomaly, and it's just frustrating to be so out of shape! Again, something else I remedied! I've lost like 20lbs since the Race and I'm in much better shape now."

You did have that fight in Bavaria, going up that hill...[Both laugh]Ralph: "Yeah, about that..."Vanessa: "You know what, and they showed it on cbs.com, they didn't air it on the show - but I was mad for a reason! A reason. The reason is he was lost and he wouldn't get directions in Italy. And then we missed the train we should've gotten and we were on a train with everyone else. And yeah, I was frustrated! I made him sleep on the floor!"

How has your relationship changed since being on the Race?Vanessa: "We're actually not together right now - we broke up."Ralph: "We haven't been together for a while now."Vanessa: "Since about a couple seconds after the plane landed!"

I'm sorry to hear that! Will you be keeping in touch with any of the other racers?Ralph: "Actually, I'm pretty good friends with the twins and I just got back from seeing one of them, and Elliot's band is doing well. But yeah, there's a few of us cast members that are really cool that I connected with - we did when we were on the Race, but I don't know if Vanessa is going to stay in touch or what her plan is."Vanessa: "I suck at keeping in touch with people regularly - there are people from high school and college and life that I suck at keeping in touch with, but you know if I'm ever in Vegas, you better believe I'm going to hit up Danny! If I'm ever in New York, yep, I'm going to hit up Joey! If I'm ever in Arizona or I guess Seattle I'll hit the boys, the twins. But you know, if I'm in LA, I don't think I'm going to be making that phone call to Rachel!"

What one piece of advice would you give people going on The Amazing Race?Vanessa: "Work out, for Pete's sake!"Ralph: "I wasn't going to say anything!"Vanessa: "Working out, to be physically fit and physically ready for it, is probably the best advice I can give you. Even though I think the federal agents were probably the most fit people - well, of course Danny and Joey - but they were very, very fit people and we still kind of got past them."Ralph: "As far as advice is concerned, what was really fun about it is you really can't prepare for it. I mean, you think about, 'What should I pack? What shouldn't I pack? What do I need to do?' and they throw stuff at you that there's no way in the world you would have ever thought of. You have to just be prepared, you have to be very easy going in many aspects, and you just have to be ready to lay it all out there."Vanessa: "I say bring a wig - pack a wig! I'd be ready to shave my head. Bring a wig, you don't know what's going to happen!"

The former couple talks Team 'Big Brother,' that crazy chicken challenge and moreBy Diane Vadino

Fourth-place finishers Ralph Kelley and Vanessa Macias didn't fight as much as some of the other coupled-up teams. But the freelance writer and bar owner are, nonetheless, no longer together. After a gritty final episode in which Vanessa, with a sprained ankle, took on one of the season’s most challenging tasks, we talked to them about watching the finale last night, paying their respects in Hiroshima, and the start of the battles with Rachel and Brendon.

What it like watching Sunday night's episode?

Vanessa: It was the one episode I couldn't sit down and watch. It's like watching the sinking of the Titanic. If you're on the Titanic, you don't want to see it go down. After a couple glasses of wine, I did watch it on the DVR.

Still, Vanessa, it seems like you should be proud of how hard you went after that challenge.

Ralph: It says a lot about her character that she left it all out there. She'll be the first one to tell you, though, that she should have listened to me and gone to the gym.

Vanessa: I don't know if that would have changed anything.

Ralph: It might have. But it doesn't matter. She was a bad ass. She showed a lot of heart. And it was heartbreaking watching it.

Was there anything you could have done differently?

Vanessa: No. We were going tit-for-tat on the Roadblocks, and when I had to do it, we were joking in the cab about if it'd be a physical challenge, like, "Leap this building" or something ridiculous.

Ralph: We tried to strategize where I was doing the more physical ones, but this couldn't be avoided.

Vanessa: The one thing we would have done differently, overall, is the Fast Forward [in India.] I knew there was a reason Rachel was crying [when she and Brendon failed to take the Fast Forward because Rachel didn’t want to shave her head], and she was, like, "Why don't you go try the Fast Forward?" I knew there was something behind it. But she didn't know that I totally would have cut my hair. But still, our position in the race wasn’t in jeopardy because Mark and Bopper were so totally behind. So I’m not sure it would have mattered.

What was your favorite moment on the race?

Ralph: My grandmother's Japanese, so going to Japan was really special. And I'm a history nut, so being able to stop at the memorial [in Hiroshima] for a minute was incredible.

Did they actually make you stay there?

Ralph: Yeah, it was written into the clue that you had to be there for so many minutes. It was hard because you’re racing, and the other teams are standing right there. And it was awesome that the show made us take a few minutes to stand there and take it in.

Why do you think you and Rachel had such tension all the way throughout the race, Vanessa?

Vanessa: At the very first airport, there was a conversation where she attacked my personal and political views, and then one comment led to another. It was really just a lot of personalities. We would probably never get along in the real world. I tend to deal really well with difficult personalities. But if we'd been in a country where they don't extradite …

Ralph: Everything was left where it was.

Vanessa: I apologized for the nose [job] comments. That was below the belt. And after [the race], we were humans to each other. But we're not having tea and crumpets.

Are you guys still together?

Ralph: We're not.

It seemed like the race was really hard on everyone's relationships, even Rachel and Dave. And they’re married.

Vanessa: We were actually building our tent [in Tanzania] next to Dave and Rachel, and I was like, Wow, they aren't getting along very well. There was just sort of a major and soldier relationship there. More like cold -- not abrasive. But they're still together, so they're doing something right.

Vanessa Macias and Ralph Kelley were eliminated at the end of The Amazing Race's eleventh leg, making it just shy of the Final 3, during Sunday night's two-hour finale broadcast of the CBS reality competition's twentieth season.

The "Dating Divorcees" finished the Race in fourth place and were beat by champions and "Married Couple" Rachel Brown and Dave Brown, "Border Patrol Agents and Friends" Art Velez and J.J. Carrell -- who came in second place overall -- and third-place finishers, "Engaged Couple" and former Big Brother houseguests Brendon Villegas and Rachel Reilly.

Vanessa, who struggled with an ankle injury, and Ralph were ineligible to compete in the final twelfth leg of the Race following their ouster mid-episode of the finale broadcast, and therefore, lost their chance to compete for the million-dollar grand prize.

On Monday, Vanessa and Ralph talked to Reality TV World about their The Amazing Race experience -- including what shocking news they revealed about their relationship, whether they were disappointed with their fourth-place finish or satisfied with how they ran the Race, how many attempts it took Vanessa to finally complete the chicken-game Roadblock task, and how severe Vanessa's sprained ankle really was.

Below is the first half of our exclusive interview with Vanessa and Ralph. Check back with Reality TV World in the coming days for the concluding portion. To read Rachel B. and Dave's interview, click here.

Reality TV World: So just to clarify, I'm assuming you guys are still together, but what's the status of your relationship now? Any engagement plans for the near future?

Reality TV World: Would you guys mind talking a little bit about what went wrong?

Vanessa Macias: You would be here for awhile.

Ralph Kelley: Yeah.

Reality TV World: Okay then moving on! How are you feeling about finishing in fourth place? Are you guys disappointed because you came so close to making it to that final leg or would you say you're very satisfied with how you ran the Race regardless of the finishing order?

Vanessa Macias: I'm disappointed, because we both put everything we had out there. And seeing what we went through from the watermelons and the U-Turn and just the adversity with the buses and the cabs and everything that was wrong, and the spouts of good luck we had and the physical -- just everything that we left out on each leg.

And seeing Ralph go through everything he went through to help perpetuate us to this last leg and getting so close, I obviously feel like I let him down and that's a hard thing to swallow.

Reality TV World: During the eleventh leg in which you got eliminated, how far behind Brendon and Rachel do you think you finally arrived at the Pit Stop?

Ralph Kelley: We've heard everything from 30 minutes to like 10 minutes. Honestly, we have no idea. We know it was really close as far as within 30 minutes. Obviously, we saw them there at the sushi bar, so we knew we weren't that far behind. We didn't realize that they got lost running around the park for quite awhile, so to answer your question, anywhere from 10-30 minutes we know.

Vanessa Macias: I kind of didn't want to know and then immediately afterward, we were brought off to some doctor in Japan for my ankle.

Reality TV World: Your downfall in the Race definitely seemed to be that chicken-game Roadblock task. Vanessa, could you talk about that a little bit? Would you say the task was just really challenging in itself or did it only become a great struggle for you because of your sprained ankle? How much pain were you really in?

Vanessa Macias: Well, I sprained my ankle in India and I've had a number of different [injuries] prior to that one in particular. I've had a screw in there, I've torn my Achilles Tendon, I've broken all the bones on top of my left foot because of that screw -- and it's [affected] my Achilles heel in more ways than one.

So, when I rolled it in India, I was really concerned. But it's one of those things where if you lie down for too long, then they're going to ship you off to the doctor's. But if you get up and go, "Let's get the hell on the rickshaw and go dress the elephants" -- that's something I've never said. (Laughs)

So I was in excruciating pain initially and then we were flying and running around on it, running around all over Japan on it, and then when we got to this Roadblock and it was not up for negotiation -- it was something that I had to do because Ralph and I were going one-for-one and it was just my turn -- I knew it was going to be something physical. I just knew it was and I had no idea how physical it would be.

Reality TV World: So did you end up having just a sprained ankle or did it become something worse than that?

Vanessa Macias: It was a pretty nasty sprain.

Ralph Kelley: She tore three ligaments.

Reality TV World: Oh wow. Well the show made it seem like you two were very close to quitting that Roadblock task to save Vanessa's ankle because she seemed to be in a lot of pain. So how close were you to just stopping where you were and taking the penalty at the end of the leg, and if you had done it, do you think you'd have any chance to avoid coming in last place or would you say you'd be pretty much doomed?

Ralph Kelley: We discussed briefly her stopping. She attempted the Roadblock probably 24-30 times, so it was up to her.

Vanessa Macias: It was not a decision we made lightly.

Ralph Kelley: It was completely up to her, and then if we would've taken the penalty, we know for sure -- 100% percent -- we would've been eliminated.

Vanessa Macias: And a quitting weenie on top of that!

Ralph Kelley: But she opted to stick it out, and obviously, she showed what she was made out of by finishing.

Reality TV World: Ralph, you tried to convince Vanessa to stop the Roadblock task because you were concerned she'd end up really hurting herself. What was going through your mind at that point? Were you thinking 50/50 that you wanted her to quit but you also hoped she would continue, or were you leaning much heavier towards one side?

Ralph Kelley: There was probably about two percent of me that really wanted her to quit, but I mean, it was for the right reasons. Obviously we were there to compete and we were the second team to show up. The other two teams came in and then passed us, but I didn't want to see her hurt any worse than she already was.

It was really her decision. It was completely her decision. I wasn't going to force her. I just wanted her to understand and know that if she did decide not to finish, that I was going to support her, you know?

Reality TV World: How drastically do you both think the outcome of your Race might've been different had Ralph been able to do that Roadblock task instead of Vanessa?

Ralph Kelley: I honestly don't know. Our cab could've gotten lost. I think -- I obviously could have probably done the Roadblock a lot faster and we would've gotten out of there, but then again, there's no guarantee that we would've not been eliminated. So.

Reality TV World: It sounds like it took Vanessa a lot of tries to finally complete that Roadblock task, so how long do you think you were actually there for, and then once you got to the sushi bingo Detour task, how long did it take you to finish that?

Vanessa Macias: I felt like we were there forever! I mean, forever. It went from the Japanese game show host and audience heckling me, and then they saw my ankle, and they were like, "Oh, wow. She's really injured" to them rooting me on. There was a guy in there that was like on the verge of tears. I was screaming and crying. It was agony.

It was absolute complete agony, and then on the same token, I would have felt worse had I quit. I wish I would've just pulled it together sooner or quicker or just did it faster. I don't know if there's any way we would've known how close we were and if it would've even mattered. And seeing Rachel and Brendon at the sushi thing kind of gave us a little glimmer of hope.

Reality TV World: At the sushi bingo task, you guys caught up to Rachel and Brendon and it made them very flustered. So how long after Rachel and Brendon completed and left the task did you guys finish it? At that point, were you convinced you were in fourth place and would finish that way or were you still optimistic you could remain in the Race?

Ralph Kelley: We were probably there about another 15 minutes, 20 minutes maybe.

Vanessa Macias: Sure.

Reality TV World: Okay, so it sounds like you think you made the right decision in choosing that task right? Because the "Photo Cut-Out" one, Rachel and Dave seemed to breeze through it. So I didn't know if you ended up regretting your choice or not.

Vanessa Macias: Kind of, yeah.

Ralph Kelley: Our whole contemplation on that whole choosing what side of the Detour, we didn't know how big the cut-outs were going to be -- the lifesize cut-outs -- and we had to take them from one location to another, and her ankle was already messed up...

Vanessa Macias: Torn to sh-t. (Laughs)

Ralph Kelley: So that's really what pushed us to go do the sushi.

Above is the first half of our exclusive interview with Vanessa and Ralph. Check back with Reality TV World in the coming days for the concluding portion.

It would probably be difficult for Vanessa and Ralph to compete again as a couple in future Amazing Races. That is too bad because they balanced out each other quite well. I would have loved to see what would happen on the Japanese Game Show ROADBLOCK if Vanessa was competing on a healthy ankle. Remember that Vanessa started in second place at that ROADBLOCK. The team that would have been most at risk was David and Rachel since Brendon with his extra height should have done well and Rachel Brown was quite a bit shorter than Brendon.

It would probably be difficult for Vanessa and Ralph to compete again as a couple in future Amazing Races. That is too bad because they balanced out each other quite well. I would have loved to see what would happen on the Japanese Game Show ROADBLOCK if Vanessa was competing on a healthy ankle. Remember that Vanessa started in second place at that ROADBLOCK. The team that would have been most at risk was David and Rachel since Brendon with his extra height should have done well and Rachel Brown was quite a bit shorter than Brendon.

Then thank goodness she had sore ankle. It would've been painful to see Art & JJ win the whole thing.But still, Rachel & Dave had finished the detour pretty fast. Even if Art & JJ started the detour first.

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Oh Brian, I can't wait til after dinner. Cos then we'll go home and you can watch me have my period.

San Antonio TV personality Vanessa Macias and her ex-boyfriend, a former Boerne bar owner, joined together to try and win the million-dollar prize on “Amazing Race.” ...They were still dating during the show’s taping, but broke up right after.

A) They never have another Unfinished Business, because I prefer to see new teams every season.

- or -

B) Neither Vanessa nor Rachel makes it on a UB season if they do it. Because even if they both are not on at the same time, Vanessa will find some other target for her comments, or Rachel will find some other person to be the victim thereof. And that sort of drama absolutely sucks.

After a season-long feud with Brendon and Rachel, Vanessa and Ralph — who are no longer a couple — were edged out by their foes for the third and final spot on The Amazing Race. But who knows what would've happened had Vanessa not performed the Japanese game show Roadblock on a bum ankle. "We try not to think about it too much," she tells TVGuide.com. "It is what it is, but I can't even describe how painful it was running, jumping and falling down over and over again. ... Of course we wanted to win and beat them, but they beat us fair and square." But how did this verbal warfare all start? Get the duo's side of the story below.

Do you know how far behind Brendon and Rachel you were?Ralph: We were fairly close. I don't know the exact time. We saw them in the next step after you check-in, so we weren't that far behind.Vanessa: There were a whole bunch of conflicting reports on that. Some people told us a half-hour, some people said less, but it was closer than I ever anticipated, especially after my ordeal at the Roadblock.

You guys seemed to have made up a lot of time. How long were you at the Roadblock?Vanessa: Forever!Ralph: It was quite a while. We were the second team to show up and obviously the last team to leave. We made up some time because we saw Big Brother at the sushi challenge, but we were there for a very, very long time. It was surprising when we saw them. Vanessa was seriously hurt and she stuck it out. It hampered us being able to move any quicker and the situation was what it was.Vanessa: It was a lot of falling, screaming, getting up, falling, screaming, getting up.

Your ankle looked nasty. Why didn't you tape it up?Vanessa: We actually did. I would stop during it every once in a while and Ralph taped it up. He did a fairly good job, but every time he taped it up, it would swell so much that it looked like a tube of biscuits that you had just slammed on the counter, and my ankle would just pop out. It was gross. So the wrapping was kind of pointless. But I think they just kept using the same shot of my ankle.

Ralph, you told her to quit, but Vanessa, you were adamant about not quitting. How close were you to throwing in the towel?Vanessa: We discussed it very, very briefly. But in a situation like that, that's not how you wanna go out. I don't think you really realize what you'd do for $1 million or really anything you care that much about until you're in that situation.

Did you exacerbate your ankle injury even more?Vanessa: Well, the thing is, I have a screw in that ankle. I've torn an Achilles tendon and I've broken all the bones on top of my foot, so I knew the screw was not gonna give. I did find out later that that was inaccurate! [Laughs] It is possible to chip off the part of the screw. But I think that's where my mind was. "It's not gonna break!" But it hurt like hell. ... I just lost my footing [in India]. I wish I could say I tripped over something interesting, but it was just me being clumsy! I'm a klutz and that ankle sometimes locks up, but, really, there was no reason for me to fall the way I did and just eat it.

You had a pretty serious scrape on your right shoulder too.Vanessa: Yeah, I fell on the entire right side of my body, so I still have a scar on my shoulder, my knee. That's never going away. This shoulder looks awful! It looked like ringworm for a long time and I was really self-conscious about it.

What was your mindset like during the Race because you guys were hanging by a thread almost every leg?Ralph: [Laughs] Our goal was to always do our best, but, yeah, we thought we were done so many times. The watermelon challenge — we were there almost seven hours. When we were driving to the Roadblock, we pretty much had discussed that it was our time to go.Vanessa: The cab we took to the Roadblock — the guy stopped for gas, I thought he was gonna stop for a burger at one point. He was just talking to people. We were like, "This is ridiculous!"Ralph: As a team, we probably had the worst luck. We were on a bus and the window got blown out. We're in a cab in Africa and the guy gets a flat. Thank God that spare made it! That spare looked worse than the flat tire. It always seemed like we would get going and something happens. Vanessa, unfortunately, twisted her ankle and she had to do the next Roadblock to keep our count even and of course, with our luck, it involved running. It was just like that for us. In Europe, we're in third or fourth or even the middle of the pack, and then luck seems to find us and bite us in the ass quite a bit.

We have to talk about Brendon and Rachel obviously. How did your feud all start?Vanessa: When everybody started talking about what they do and their lives, we started talking about my political work and they challenged my political views pretty viciously. I'm fairly liberal and by "fairly," I mean pretty strongly liberal. They said something along the lines of "Oh, so you kill babies?" I'm like, "Yes, a--holes, that's what I do. I kill babies and go around shooting puppies. What the hell is the matter with you?" Obviously that didn't air; I wish it did. And she thinks I don't like her because of her sequins! No, honey, it's not because of your sequins! It's you being dumb.[Ed. Note: Read Brendon and Rachel's response here.]

You didn't have to continue interacting with her. Did you realize you could pick on her and kept doing it?Vanessa: What was interesting was once I knew I could get under her skin, then it was more — I dunno — not like a pastime... [Laughs]

You seemed to revel in it.Vanessa: Yeah. Just bless her heart. [Laughs] She's such a weak personality that anything that you say will just irk her to no end. She made it so easy. I mean, you tell me something, I kind of dust it off and it's not that big of a deal. Honestly, it's a behavior that I'm trying to modify. I didn't realize that my words would hurt people so much and seeing how vicious I could be while not even thinking twice about it and seeing it firsthand on camera has kind of opened my eyes a little bit to be nicer. So I'm being nicer.

Your nose job dig might be the line of the season.Vanessa: Yeah, but now I think it was below the belt and it was obviously mean and wrong. In hindsight, I would never say it again. But she was really asking for it.

Ralph, I think it was pretty clear that you wanted no part of that, especially in the extended Mat Chat from last week. What was your take on this whole thing?Ralph: I mean, I wasn't there for drama and Vanessa wasn't there for the drama either. I just didn't want any part of it. I really didn't. I dealt with it because obviously I'm gonna support my teammate and my partner. I was just so frustrated, though, and it was over stupid stuff. It would just escalate.Vanessa: I don't think my political views are stupid.Ralph: Well, I just think things could've been let go and handled differently. I just wanted no part of it.Vanessa: But I just want to say that there's nothing I said about her that other people didn't say. I just said it when the cameras were on. Everything I said, whether it be about them or the Mississippi girls or whoever, I just said it while cameras were rolling and they just happened to show my comments about her.

Did you know they were on Big Brother? I think a lot of people thought you watched them on it and knew how to push her buttons.Vanessa: No. I had never seen Big Brother in my life, which I think says more about her than anything.Ralph: We didn't even know they were on Big Brother until we were already racing. We had no idea who they were.

Did you kiss and make up when it was all said and done?Vanessa: [Laughs] I wouldn't say there was a kiss and a makeup. After everything wrapped, we were civil. We're human beings. We're not hanging out on the weekends or having tea or coffee or anything.

What are you up to now?Vanessa: I am the director of corporate and community partnerships for the San Antonio Talons, the new arena football team, which is fun. On game days, I get to do their in-house announcements, so I get to have more fun. It hits the nerd side of me. I get to write, strategize, do some marketing and problem-solve, and on game day, I get to be a goofy jackass who runs around and high-fives fans. It's the best of both worlds.Ralph: I'm just working and spending time with my daughter.